internet - More weblog hosts under attack

After www.blogbus.com also www.blogcn.com and China Newsmen were said to be forced to close their doors. According to fellow blogger Topku, who says he has spoken to the CEO's of blogbus and blogcn, the couragous letter of dr. Jiang Yanyong has triggered off the action. After Digital News China, also professor Joseph Bosco, teching at the China Foreign Affairs university in Beijing republished the full letter on his site.
China Digital News reported on the closure of China Newsman, but that site appeared to be working on Saturday morning.

law - Experimental NGO's get first green light

China will for the first time allow non-governmental organizations (NGO's) to work in China, announced the official state newswire Xinhua today. It quoted officials of the State Environmental Protection Administration, who announced this remarkable change on Friday.
Officially no organizations outside the state are allowed. All organizations, including trade unions and churches have to operate as a part of the government or the party apparatus.
Many quasi-NGO's have developed, but they are often hardly disguised government departments, or they are technically illegal. Also foreign organizations like the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club are forced to operate in a rather murky legal situation, where they cannot act as independent legal entities.
"Your club is not legal, but also not illegal," were the historical words of an official of the ministry of foreign affairs, a few years ago. "China just has not yet the regulations for your kind of organization."
According to estimations only in the environmental area China has at least 2,000 'illegal' NGO's. Legislations on NGO's will be a next step, when experimental NGO's do not cause too much trouble.

internet - Blogging service ordered to shut down

Henan-based Blogbus, host to about 15,000 weblogs, has been ordered to close its doors, writes Isaac Mao at his weblog (and I was tipped by Joi Ito).
Weblogs are in China a fairly new way of publishing. In the US they exist since the 1990s, but became very popular after the attacks at 9/11. Popular weblogs can get between 20,000 and 50,000 readers per day. About 2.7 million weblogs are now active in the US only. In China weblogs came in the limelight as the internet censors banned weblogs from Blogger.com at the beginning of last year, cover half of all the existing weblogs. Other weblogs did not have any problem.
The reasons for the shutdown of Blogbus.com are not yet clear.

On making money and adding value – the WTO column

(tomorrow at Chinabiz)

Shanghai - “How do _you_ add value?” The question thundered over the phone from Chicago.

Having a better half from Shanghai studying for her MBA in the United States is sometimes a nuisance, even when we are discussing business deals. Maybe it is especially when we are discussing business deals.

I returned that day just came back from a very different discussion with Guy Olivier Faure, professor in sociology, teaching at both CEIBS in Shanghai and the Sorbonne in Paris on the changes in values among the Shanghainese.
After being back in Shanghai for two week I had already forgotten that there might be other values than those that can be added in a value chain.
Have the Shanghainese changed, since I arrived for the first time, ten years ago? Well, at least value is being added in a more sophisticated way. Even the fact value is being added might be rather new.

Foreign business people still have retained their talent to complain, in the way they talk about a country’s or a city’s policies as farmers that talk about the weather. It might rain or the sun might be shining, but there is always something wrong.

But in one decade the economic situation has changed dramatically for both foreign and domestic enterprises. There are some weak brothers among the foreign invested companies, especially in finance where regulations limit expansion, or in the consumer goods, where competition is killing. But the winners are having the overhand among the foreign invested companies and ten years ago many held that for impossible.
When I walk between the skyscrapers in Shanghai and try to compare how those streets looked when I arrived first, it is an unbelievable change.
State-owned enterprises were ten years ago written off. Nobody took them serious and the idea they would ever compete in a global market seemed rather alien, to put it politely. A permanent flood of reforms of SOE’s had one thing in common: they basically failed.
Now some of them are not only highly profitable, but might even develop into serious global players. Some of my friends are deeply involved in new efforts to bring state-owned enterprises up to a higher level of management and to me it looks much sounder than any of the previous efforts.

That change has taken place, because a part of the Shanghainese is asking another question, compared to ten years ago. Now they ask themselves how they can add value, ten years ago they wondered how they could make money. There is a slight difference and the smart people are increasingly getting that.
That remark about my added value was not that bad at all.

Fons Tuinstra

photo - Caught in the act

Watch the white gloves! A Xinhua picture on a forest fire in Jiangxi Province.

Politics - The Dr. Jiang discussion

The China Digital News got the letter of Dr. Jiang Yanyong translated who addressed the authorities in Beijing on the Tiananmen issue. A discussion is developing at Andrea's T-Salon.
As bloggers do I first post this and then read it, but it looks might interesting.

media - The Future of the Foreign Correspondent

Speaker: Fons Tuinstra, Journalist and Founding Member of the Shanghai FCC
Fons will discuss his current research on an alarming trend that has relevance to us all--the dwindling numbers of foreign correspondents at posts around the world. This should make for a fascinating presentation and interactive discussion with the audience

Tuesday, March 16th, 2004, 7:30pm

Where: Sasha's, Third Floor, 11 Dongping Rd (corner of Hengshan Rd)
Price: FCC Members FREE, non-members RMB 50.
We will have free snacks and discounted drinks (at RMB 30) all night
RSVP: by Sunday, March 14th, to Crystyl Mo (y@crystyl.com)

economy - No news from the PBOC

The central bank, the People's Bank of China has again confirmed the peg between the Renminbi and the US dollar will remain in place, media report.
It is getting boring by now, all these denials, isn't it?

internet - Berkeley invites me for a panel

Interesting, the China internet project at the journalism school of Berkeley university invites me for a panel on 'Blogging in China'. That seems a worthwhile trip over the ocean, although it might spoil my holiday plans. Guess I should get this penciled in.
"This conference, scheduled for April 28 May 1, 2004, has two components. One section will a Knight Foundation-sponsored program that focuses on training mid-career journalists for covering the political, economic and social issues which relate to technology. The audience of journalists will be comprised of a group of some 15 reporters, editors, columnists and producers from leading U.S. print, radio, television and new media news organizations selected to receive fellowships to attend the conference, as well as a select number of senior university officials, including deans and faculty from other departments.
The second aspect of the gathering will be a public symposium featuring talks, panels and conversations with a number of experts from various academic institutions, non-profit organization, industry and the analytic community that will focus on the expansion, management and transformative effects of the Internet (and other digital technologies) on China and its future."
I would be part of the second section, but maybe have to squeeze myself also in for the first part or get another program organized while I'm in one of the US temples of journalism.

internet - Spam under attack

Four Internet providers, America Online, Earthlink, Yahoo and Microsoft are suing hundreds of spammers, people and companies who send unsolicited mails, report the New York Times. It is about time!
They use a fairly recently US law that has been qualified by experts as fully inadequate.
Chinese internet providers have often been accussed of sending much of the spam, although in most cases the spam inself has an US origine.
Some telecommunication companies like China Telecom have taken generic action, by stopping users from sending more than 30 emails in one batch, but in that why they mainly hurt legitimate senders while spammers find easy an alternative.

internet - Intel declares war in WiFi clash


The US chip giant Intel will not go along with the requirement of the Chinese government to use domestically developed standard for wireless computing, report Reuters today.
"We have been unable to find an appropriate solution that meets Intel's product quality standards that follows the PRC's (People's Republic of China) requirements," Intel spokeswoman Colleen Rubart told Reuters in Hong Kong.
The Chinese effort is part of a strategy to develop domestic technology in strategic areas. China developed with Siemens its own standard for mobile telecommunication, but would allow other technologies too. China now requires foreign companies to purchase domestic encryption technology from 24 Chinese firms.
Like often, strategic policies are mixed with efforts to make money out of the technology. The attitude of Intel is rather new, as most companies would try to change policies in backdoor maneuvers, often with relative success.

Update: China announces it will not give in to the pressure, reports Bloomberg.

economy - Shanghai offers lodges for job seekers

For 15 Renminbi (US$ 1.8) per day job seekers can hire space in so-called 'lodges', writes the Shanghai Daily today. They mainly focus on students from outside Shanghai and sometimes even require a student ID before they accept migrants.
They are joining the frenzy in Shanghai, but have to face a very competitive job market. In one hostel of 25 rooms people pay 15 Renminbi per day for 10 square meter and two bunk beds and a table. There is free internet access and information about jobs in Shanghai.
Shanghai has on average around three million migrants, depending on the time of the year. Many of them would be housed on building sites or look for acquaintances to stay with. The government seems eager to start regulating this kind of informal hotels, and media reports are the first indication.
"Local authorities worry that the lack of security measures and firefighting facilities in the job seekers' lodges could pose a problem since it is not clear who would be accountable should something go awry," writes the paper.

reform - China to abolish farmers' tax

Do not tamper with our six thousand year culture, China often warns the outside world. The question is what is going to happen when its own government is going to abolish a 4,000 year old tradition.
There are good reasons to abolish the tax, as well-documented complaints are around already for a long time. But really changing the system will be harder than what former president Jiang Zemin did in the second half of the 1990s when he ordered the army to get out of business, and was more successful than anybody.

media - Does reform means opening up?

The Ming Pao Group will try to enter the Chinese media market, the South China Morning Post announces today.
Is that a smart idea. Many non-Chinese media organizations do look already for years at this potentially huge market and some of them have tried to enter through the frontdoor and failed.
Now the media market in China is changing very fast - as one of the last markets to reform. But the market has been more unwillingly than others. The official opening up for foreign entities seems to limit officially to - using the automotive jargon - the suppliers in the industry, while the delivery is still firmly government controlled. And limiting the possibility of the suppliers in that way too.
Ming Pao is using a backdoor construction, as many have tried before. The announcent in the SCMP might not be the best way to deal with a backdoor construction. The website of the Ming Pao group is blocked on the mainland and that is mostly not a good sign when you want to do media business in China. The list of corporate casualities in China seems in the media business larger than in any other industry, but that might not stop most publishers.

internet - Between crackdown and openness

A balanced view at the Christian Science Monitor today. Very hard to find in a country were so many conflicting ideas live next to each other. Even about the question whether you can make money online in a structural way is not much agreement, although Business Week takes a positive view.

internet - Weekly chat on Wednesday (BT)

Every week I will (try to) host a chatroom so this whole venture can become a bit more interactive in the long run. I have planned to do this every Wednesday at 9:30 AM Beijing time. Please click here or on the logo to get connected. It provides your access to the IRC-channel of the China Herald and is for free, although you might need to register if you have never used the system. You do not have to pay for the usage.
Please write to me if you encounter any problems.

Session will be at 8:30 PM EST/5:30 PM PST on Tuesday in the US if my timing is correct and on a rather inconvenient hour for Europe. Some people at the US West coast and Europe have told me timing is not good for them. I'm planning to change both timing and the system I use, but simply did not have time to attend to it on time.

human - Dr. Li of OBI China sacked

The high-profile president and CEO of OBI China Dr. Li Fengjiang has been sacked on Friday, says a short notice at the OBI website.
Dr. Li, who was also board member of the German company, had been in the forefront of the company in China, attending all high-level meetings with Chinese and German officials visiting China.
The announcement does not say what the reason is for sacking Dr. Li but company sources say that a recent joint venture with Haier was not signed with Haier itself but with a management company without much leverage in Haier.
"You have to get along well with every party concerned with your business: the local government, business partners, the community..., it is a must for you to communicate with them; you have to let them hear your voice and understand you," said Li Fengjiang, president and chief executive officer of OBI (China) Management Systems Co Ltd. in an older article in the Shanghai Star.
OBI is a retailer in construction material with its Asian hub in Shenzhen.
Unconfirmed rumors say that a newly opened store in Qingdao was built on contaminated soil without being treated, although OBI was legally committed to do so, but that story seems to be unrelated to the sacking.

economy - Rice price hike hits China - WSJ

Prices for rice have gone up unexpectedly in some Chinese cities and the government has stepped in by increasing the rice supply, writes the Wall Street Journal. (Subscription required)
The Liangyou Group - China's largest rice supplier - will start today to deliver 600 million metric ton of rice per day into the market. The price rise occured first in Nanjing, but other cities now also take measures.

economy - HSBC seeks credibility in investment banking

London-based banking giant HSBC is trying to beef up its presents in investment banking in China, one of the few areas where the bank has been traditionally weak. But with a market of US$ 16bn worth of IPO's only this week, according to the Financial Times, the bank wants to take on rivals like Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

economy - Car-craze should worry WHO

You might think that SARS or the chicken flu are contagious diseases. After one week in Shanghai, I'm sure that the current car craze is equally dangerous. Half of my friends is thinking of buying a car and much of the other half is thinking of ways to make money by selling cars or supplies.
It is too early to really assess the situation; I might get it too! I thought that most of the automotive companies were already investing in China, more are still coming.
I still do think that the automotive industry is heading for a massive overcapacity, but saying 'no' is as hard as stopping an overheating economy. There is no way back.

Update: Even Wang Jianshuo is in de process of buying a car in Shanghai and shares his observations.

Renminbi - 'No pressure' to change monetarian constraints

Pressure on the Renminbi to revalue is diminishing, while removing the constraints on the capital accounts will take place in five to six years time, said Guo Shuqing, had of the State Administration of Foreign exchange(SAFE) in the Financial Times.
Deputy governor Lu Ruogu of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) told reporters in the margin of a meeting in Davos that China even did not have a plan to revaluate their currency, writes Reuters. Li said the PBOC was closely watching possible inflation, but repeated the economy was not overheating.
The value of the Renminbi has become a hot issue in the past months, as US lobby groups say that the Renminbi has been undervalued and China would be stealing jobs in the US. Experts, Chinese officials and even the US Administration has denied such a connection, although interpretations on the valuation of the Chinese currency remain.

law - Music industry goes after karaoke bars

American teenagers and CCTV were already on the hitlist of the international music industry, but they now also go after 800 karaokebars, reports the Shanghai Star. Karaoke is one of the more popular ways for Chinese to spend their time.
Unless they stop paying their dues for copyrights, 50 international and domestic music companies will take legal action. The Tianwei law firm in Beijing is acting on behave of the industry and will service legal notices in twenty provinces and municipaliteits including Beijing, Chengdu and Guangzhou, write the Shanghai Star.

economy - Lower taxes, hungry officials

Prime minister Wen Jiabao promised lower taxes for the embattled farmers in his country during the ongoing session of the National People's Congres, probably one of the hardest promises to deliver.
Wen wants to cut back agricultural taxes with one percent per year, eliminating them fully by 2007. He earned an applause with that promise from the delegates, but might find local official blocking the policy.
Taxes are traditionally collected at the lowest administrative level and each layer in the hierarchy can keep a cut of the taxes. That system makes tax-cuts rather unpopular among local government, who have to find alternatives to cover their legal and illegal financial needs.

internet - First NPC-weblogger

Only days ago I wondered when the first Chinese politician would start blogging, and today the People's Daily announced that the 46-year old Zhou Hongyu, member of the National People's Congres, is doing just that at his website.
At his site, other internet-users can send him proposals he can introduce at the NPC. "The Internet is a most primary means to collect information ina modern society, and as the number of netizens swells and their cultural accomplishments accumulate, the impact of web surfers over the country's political affairs will increase daily," said Zhou, also a noted professor of Central China Normal University, according to the People's Daily.
Zhou is the deputy director of the Wuhan Education Bureau